


Bird on a Wire

by BoPeepWithNoSheep



Series: Gently Rise and Softly Call [4]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Comfort, Gen, Gods, Lucretia and the raven queen talk about godhood and how they didn't ask for it but it sure is here, Post-Ascension, godhood, newly ascended Lucretia, raven queen backstory, this will not make sense if you don't read Rest for the Wicked
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-29
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2020-05-29 14:24:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19402147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BoPeepWithNoSheep/pseuds/BoPeepWithNoSheep
Summary: The Raven Queen wishes to speak with faerun's newest reluctant goddess.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all! So this is the first side story that technically takes place AFTER the main fic. It's pretty much immediately after since there's only like one chapter but that bad boy is coming along PRETTY slowly so I decided to pop this on down since the most reference to it in the last chapter will just be Lup mentioning that RQ wants to talk.

When Lucretia is gently ushered into the Raven Queen’s great hall she’s not quite sure what she was expecting. Bones perhaps, some kind of macabre display befitting of a death deity. What she finds is a bit less morbid and more emblematic of her name, there are birds everywhere. Ravens yes, but also crows, magpies, jackdaws, passerines, and jays. It’s more colorful than she’d anticipated, certainly not as dour but just as unnerving.

Some of the birds ignore her, more preoccupied with grooming their nest fellows or warbling but others watch her with an intensity and intelligence that leads her to believe these are no ordinary birds. Lup leads her through, nods to a few birds but otherwise remains uncharacteristically quiet as they make their way towards what in any other room Lucretia would expect a throne to stand. Instead, the room just seems to stop, drops off into a strange inky black chasm that makes Lucretia blink twice as she tries to get her eyes to adjust.

Without truly thinking of it, she feels warmth radiate from the crown of her head and suddenly a gentle light overpowers the few candles scattered about. Lucretia ignores it, because if she thinks about the fact that her hair is currently lighting up a room she has to think about the fact that _her hair is lighting up a room_. She feels someone squeeze her hand, but when she looks behind her to find Lup her friend is gone in a puff of feathers.

Before the sight can percolate in Lucretia’s brain long enough to transition from confusion to anxiety a deep, melodic voice booms through the hall from the darkness.

“I am glad My Lup convinced you of the merit to this meeting. I can understand your hesitation after your ordeal, but I mean you no harm.”

It’s a relaxing voice, lilting like a lullaby Lucretia can’t quite remember until it hits her--The gentle music that had roared past the din of battle when Bastion had ripped her soul out. It’s the same ethereal, haunting tune.

Her breath shudders out and she almost expects to see it, given how cold she suddenly feels. Her light falters, flickers like a candle but doesn’t quite go out. She allows the feeling to linger for a half minute before taking another breath. She composes herself, stands tall in the face of her almost mortality and speaks, “I--Well, I expected this to be a little different or different circumstances I suppose.”

Massive hands, bone white and nearly glistening under Lucretia’s light tap out a small rhythm on the black tile. It’s utterly eerie that Lucretia can’t even _see_ the rest of the goddess shrouded in darkness with only her hands creeping into the light. A low hum fills the room, rumbling through Lucretia’s chest before the Raven Queen deigns to speak, “Yes, someone has made a _special_ case of you. As someone once did to me.”

 _That_ is not what Lucretia expected this conversation to be about, “B-Beg pardon?”

“I was not always this celestial being,” One, lithe almost skeletal finger beckons her forward. With some hesitation, Lucretia takes one step that turns to three then five until she finds herself standing beside hands that are nearly as tall as she is, “I was mortal once, powerful and full of life until I was no longer. There was a different god of death then, a cruel tyrant who saw my strength and beauty as a prize. He made me his queen so I took his crown and now I am what you see before you.”

“A _goddess_.”

The hand moves, the gaunt finger lightly taps the center of her chest, “Yes, as are _you_.”

Lucretia recoils and a blinding light fills the room. For a flash of a moment, Lucretia thinks she sees rows of teeth behind a raven skull mask, “No--No, you took it, I didn’t _want_ this. I never _asked_ for this!”

The cooing soft lullaby fills her ears again, and Lucretia feels the panic in her chest recedes just the smallest bit. She can breathe again, and the blinding light dulls back to that candlelight flicker. Cold fingers surround her, cradling her, and Lucretia realizes with a start that once again she’s found herself fallen and assisted by the most unexpected of people.

The Raven Queen speaks in trilling, soothing tones as she rights Lucretia back onto her feet, “Neither did I, little light. I only wanted freedom, but fate works in odd ways--”

A sudden punch to the gut, awakening to the wolves in her brain and the monsters braying for her attention at every slip. Lucretia was nimble once, able to dodge the fate life attempted to thrust upon her for one hundred years but faerun changed things, changed her.

In Faerun, she found fate to be very cruel to her.

“ _Istus_ , why does she _hate_ me--”

“Not Lady Fate, little light.” Her majesty tsks as she strokes the back of her nail across Lucretia’s back, “Cosmic fate, it’s bigger than even us. I’ve heard tales of young gods with similar tales to yours, a vision of a kind being that gives gentle encouragement. Your friends call them Jeffandrew, I believe.”

“Y-Yes. They made a new body for me because of what Bastion did to my soul.”

“That is not unlike my experience, the moment I put on the crown everything went dark. For a moment I thought I had died a second time, but then I was in a meadow. A pleasant voice told me I had been very brave, and said that I would need to be braver to take on the mantle of death. When I blinked I was back in the astral plane and my form was utterly changed.”

“They said--They said they were _sorry_.”

All at once, in a wash of feathers, the Raven Queen no longer towers above her, instead, a stately figure stands at her side. The mask she had glimpsed is pulled back and Lucretia sees a face that, at a glance might be considered beautiful. With each individual trait lovely in itself but the collection of them together harkening an _uncanny_ sort of beauty. Her teeth are lovely, almost pearlescent but the shape and the sheer _number_ of them leaves an odd sense of being prey in the back of Lucretia’s mind. Her majesty’s nose is as elegant and aquiline as one would expect from one with such a name but the longer Lucretia looks, the more like a _beak_ it truly appears. She wonders if it too has teeth.

The eyes draw Lucretia’s attention most, _piercing_ eyes all black with red slit pupils the only color on her entire form. Deep crimson like blood, like the starblaster’s hull. When she blinks there are four lids. The Queen is in a breath terrifying but when she wraps strong arms around Lucretia her body folds into the comfort.

“Oh, little light. I have stood where you stand now, pushed over the precipice of change with no true agency of your own. Whether it is a curse or a gift now it is _yours_ to decide, you have power now and it is not something to be taken from you easily.” Lucretia feels more comfortable in the arms of death than she’s entirely in a state of mind to really consider. Still, comfort is something being given to her in such an abundance in recent days and the little part of her that panics and fusses wishes to suck it all up like a sponge. Surely, this will only last for a little while longer. Everyone will lose interest in her trauma and she’ll be trapped with it circling her brain again until the next catastrophe in her life brings them all shuffling back.

So she takes the comfort that Death has to offer because this time she’s escaped the specter’s grasp. They linger this way for some span of time, Lucretia isn’t truly sure and her internal clock is still shot to hell without any sunlight to cheat with. When the Raven Queen pulls away she takes Lucretia’s face in her cold hands and carefully swipes beneath her eyes. Lucretia hadn’t realized she’d been crying and it’s still so strange to see the odd, stardust liquid her tears have become.

“Should you need assistance, I can offer you a boon,” The Raven Queen croons, “Ask of me what you wish and I will grant it if it is in my power. Your first celestial favor, you will find that we trade with them often, but this I will give you for free.”

It’s funny, how Lucretia’s mind has always been so quick to jump to mighty, terrible wants that so often end up ruining her and her family--Yet the thought that careens into her brain at the idea of a boon from _Death herself_. Perhaps this idea is a poor one but like so many before it, now that it is seared in her mind the urge to pursue it will be impossible to ignore.

But, she is a goddess now--Or so this one insists, and tempered whims are not a trait she’s ever heard associated terribly with godhood. She’s lost so much, so much has been taken from her and just this once, she doesn’t plan to abuse her powers but with this one opportunity, she’s going to do something not for her family but for _herself_.

“Anything that you can accomplish? What if I wish to break one of your laws?” She nearly hesitates but in the end, her voice stays steady even as she asks what may well be impossible.

The other goddesses face twitches if she had eyebrows Lucretia thinks both would find themselves in new real estate on the queen’s forehead. Her demeanor changes slightly, and for a moment Lucretia worries she’s angered her but instead the queen looks almost intrigued, “What _specifically_ do you need assistance with, little light? That you ask me to break my own rules?”

“I’ll do it whether you help me or not,” Because, with all of the kindness she’s been shown it’s only fair that Lucretia warns her. The Raven Queen saw just as much as everyone else on The Day of Story and Song. Saw Lucretia’s desperation and willingness to do terrible, ruthless things and it isn’t a threat. Though Lucretia thinks she would dare to threaten Death if she must, but it’s a fair warning. A courtesy for a kindness, “However, I’d wager it will be easier with your permission.”

The Raven Queen laughs, full-bodied and bent unnaturally at the waist. It catches Lucretia entirely off guard, warbling birdsong but so deep that it rumbles through the entire room. Birds around them caw, screech, and warble back and for a moment Lucretia thinks they might attack her. Then, as she wipes a single black tear from her eye she grins, teeth ear to ear.

“You are so very _bold_ , little light. You remind me of myself when I was so young, tell me of your unlawful boon and you will have it.”

It’s Lucretia’s turn to laugh, disbelieving and bright because that was so easy. Her hands shake but her heart practically sings, “In the astral sea there are two _perfect_ individuals for my first emissaries, I would make them a cleric and a paladin if they’ll have me.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been planning this for SO LONG and I'm real excited to finally have it out into the world. Special thanks to fic wonderland on the Taz Fic Writers Discord for motivating me to add like 1k to this chapter

When they arrive at the astral sea The Raven Queen in her truncated form lingers a few feet from the shore. It’s the vastest ocean Lucretia has ever seen in her life. There had been some expectation of a roiling, rumbling depths but everything looks so calm, _Death_ is calm. Staring out at the seemingly never-ending sea, the director feels the first stab of anxiety since this wild idea blossomed in her brain.

“How do I _find_ them?”

The Raven Queen tilts her head just slightly as if listening for something Lucretia is deaf to. A possibility, considering they’re currently within the goddess’ realm. She’s taller than Lucretia is, which really is saying something. Lucretia herself is over six feet tall and yet she still feels almost diminutive next to what she knows to be the Raven Queen’s _smallest_ form. The goddess moves closer, sidling up close to Lucretia and draping one arm around her then two in order to rest her palms against Lucretia’s wrists.

She forces herself not to flinch, the Raven Queen’s hands are cold but they don’t have the same _bite_ as metal. She hates the feel of anything on her wrists as of late but this is fine, this is _helping_ not hurting.

The Raven Queen guides her hands, dips them down into the water of the astral sea. All at once Lucretia feels chilled like all the warmth is slowly being leached from her form. The only heat is the Raven Queen at her back and the hands loosely tugging her wrists in odd little circles creating ripples in the water.

“Call to them, they will answer if it is their wish.”

Lucretia takes a deep breath, summons her courage and whispers into the sea, “Johann? Noelle? Can you hear me?”

Both hands are submerged but her eyes are locked on the horizon, locked of the writhing seas coming to life as she calls out. Waves roil out in the distance, seemingly from the little ripples she’s making. She nearly yanks her hand back when something warm brushes against her fingertips. It’s only the Raven Queen’s steady grip that keeps them submerged as Lucretia looks down to see two tiny balls of light flickering. One blue and one red, drifting around her hands before settling one into each palm.

Lucretia’s heart skips a beat, they’re so _small_ now. Souls adrift in the astral sea because she wasn’t strong enough. The Raven Queen nudges at her wrists and ever so slowly, Lucretia raises her hands from the water and cradles the two radiant orbs to her chest. A warmth she doesn’t deserve fills the space in her ribcage, settles there like a lead weight trying to drag her down into the sea below.

She chokes back tears, “I’m so _sorry_ that I couldn’t protect you. I know I put you both in so much danger without ever telling you the real reason. I-I thought I had no other choice, I don’t regret what I did but I _do_ regret that I couldn’t keep you both safe.”

That’s the crux of it, now isn’t it? That Lucretia’s regret is intrinsically tied with the fact that she did something that _nothing_ could make her regret. She can’t give them a true apology, not for stealing them away from the world below because it was necessary. She can apologize for their deaths, but she can never apologize for making them hers. It must make her terrible, she thinks, because she’s prepared to do it again if it gives them both another chance at having what The Hunger stole.

Her palms warm, the lights in her palms flicker attentively. Do they find her lacking? If anyone has the right to that surely it’s them, she was their Director. She was supposed to lead and guide them but all she lead them to was ruin and now Lucretia does feel tears slipping down her cheeks, “I-I know it’s so much to ask of you to--To work with me again but this time things will be _different_. The world is safe from the Hunger and I only want to make it safer for _everyone_.”

The light grows brighter, brighter but not hotter. It never burns her but the flashbang light is blinding, brighter than Lucretia’s new ever constant glow and she has to close her eyes against the sting. Beautiful red and blue flashes dance on the inside of her eyelids and she can feel the Raven Queen sliding away from her. There’s a weight to her palms now, a faint buzzing from both orbs.

Even as her hands begin to tremble she powers through. She has to say it, even if they reject her she’ll never know until she says the words, “If you’d like to help me with that if--if you don’t hate me for what I allowed to happen to you both.”

The weight increases, heavier than light should be. Heavier than a wooden staff, heavier than iron shackles, heavier than the world balanced in the small of her back. It’s simply too heavy for her to hold and too bright for even her closed eyes. Lucretia yelps as she tugs her hands away, as she falters and fails them again—and she’s crying again.

It’s great heaving sobs until a hand littered with instrument callouses carefully takes her right hand.

“I don’t hate you, Lucretia.” A soft melodic voice says and Lucretia opens her eyes and sobs louder because Johann, beautiful perfect Johann stands before her. Beside him isn’t the metallic body she’s used to but instead a stout and just as perfect halfling with ruddy cheeks and bright red hair.

“There’s no reason to cry, Director!” She interjects and reaches _up_ to grasp Lucretia’s left hand in such a way she’d never had to do in her hugbot form, “We both agreed to follow you before, there ain’t nothing stopping us from following you again.”

At that bold statement, the Raven Queen sees fit to finally step back into the fray. For a moment Lucretia’s anxiety peaks, she worries this was all just a trap. Lucretia will find herself jailed a second time, wrapped in tighter chains for her new powers and tossed in the stockade for her insolence. She’s cheated death so many times and gotten away with it for nearly a century and a half.

But there is no sentence handed down, no death in Death’s stare. Instead, there’s a chuckle in her voice. Deep and dulcet while unblinking eyes bore into the halfling. Her grin is full of teeth and carrion. A threat and a promise, it’s softened by amusement but the _bite_ is still hiding there, “ _Nothing_ , young Redcheek?”

  
Noelle, bold and bright as ever just grins right back. She cranes her neck to look Death in the face but height difference is her only struggle, “Well, I reckon you didn’t really _stop_ me before, Missus Your Majesty. I _chose_ to come on back in order to save my friends.”

Her stare is as unflinching as her smile is dazzling. Lucretia knows in this moment she’s made the right decision. The thought has rattled about her brain for what feels like hours. That the power she may well be imbuing upon these two with will take a strength she’s not certain many have.

She knows Johann has it, the entire _world_ knows that. Noelle, she’d been very nearly certain and the sight of an unarmored halfling staring Death in the eye while beaming like her own little sun. If Lucretia’s a light goddess like The Raven Queen says then Johann is her glittering moonbeam, illuminating the way for those lost at night and Noelle is her dazzling sunbeam, warming the weak and helping others grow.

“Yeah, death’s pretty lame,” Johann drawls as he gives her hand a soft squeeze. He’s wearing a rare lazy grin that fills Lucretia’s heart with such ease to see it again, “Music selection down there’s pretty weak, I wouldn’t mind heading over to the other side.”

It’s Lucretia’s turn to smile, and her face nearly hurts from it. She doesn’t actually remember the last time she smiled like this. Doesn’t remember the last time this kind of pure undiluted hope filled her chest. It isn’t relief persé, she’s felt that recently the feeling of unshackled wrists and sun on her skin. The smiles of her family and hands clasping her own, but this is an accomplishment.

She’s done this. The Raven Queen may have facilitated the process but the moment Lucretia realized it could be done she would have found a way eventually. Would have clawed these two out of the astral plane with her bare hands—but she didn’t have to. She just had to dip her palms in its water and call for them and they answered her even after everything she did. The mess she threw at their planet and recruited them to solve when she alone proved deficient.

That’s part of what the Bureau taught her, that even if she had to bear the weight of the world on her back she didn’t have to be alone while she did it. Sometime in the aftermath of the Day of Story and Song she forgot that, but hope has a way of reminding one of the lessons forgotten in the face of grief.

And now, miraculously she might just have two fewer people to grieve for.

It’s more than she’s ever really hoped for. Saving the world was an endeavor to fix her mistakes but it was never something she could _really_ fix. No amount of apologizing could make up for the lives lost and untold destruction of the relics and the hunger. The Bureau of Benevolence né Balance is a drop in the bucket of her sins.

This though, this is a start. She’ll never make up for what she and her family unintentionally wrought upon this world but she can give two people some semblance of a life back on their plane. It will be different, the way she understands construct emissaries to function they’ll be tethered to her. It is unlike Merle, Magnus, and Taako’s understanding with Istus and more in line with the Raven Queen and Kravitz.

She’ll provide the magic for them to manifest, but Lucretia doesn’t really want anything in return. She won’t admit it out loud, at least not in the Raven Queen’s presence though she’s sure the goddess knows. It isn’t even really a matter of her own pride, it’s taken quite the beating as of late and has proved rather flexible.

She just wants them back, but speaking those words into existence scares her a little bit because she has the power to just bring people back. She cannot abuse that, but it would be so _easy._ To look at each of her loved ones, all of them have lost someone close and dear, and reunite them. It will always be in the back of her mind now. This power is tempting, tantalizing, and probably within her reach.

The Raven Queen will allow this trespass upon her domain only once, but there’s a tricky little part in Lucretia’s brain that tells her it doesn’t _matter_ what the Raven Queen allows. Lucretia doesn’t think she’s stronger than the Raven Queen right _now_ , but she _could_ be. She was the very strongest thing in every single planar system once, she could be again if truly pressed.

She thinks the Raven Queen knows this, she thinks that’s why she allows this.

Before she can dwell too long in her thoughts the work-calloused finger gripping her right hand give a small squeeze and Lucretia blinks. Her first instinct is to glance up which--That’s certainly something she’s going to have to get used to she realizes as she has to look _down_ to see Noelle. Will it be an issue for Noelle or is she happier with her halfling form? It’s a road of questioning to walk down later, because Lucretia knows Kravitz can shapeshift at will so perhaps a similar arrangement can be made for Noelle and--  
Noelle clears her throat and again Lucretia looks, and she glances down this time because she’s always been a fast learner. Noelle pats her hand, “I don’t really get what’s going on exactly but this is some kinda magic ritual or something? I never figured you multiclassed as a cleric or nothing like that but with a whole century of time I’m sure you could do it.”

Oh--Noelle thinks this is a _resurrection_ , which it is and is not. They’ll have lives again but even Lucretia’s not entirely certain she can return them to the living exactly. Maybe some day, and that’s a thought she puts away from later, but not right now.

“It’s well--It’s something a bit different from a resurrection spell. You remember Kravitz?”

Lucretia glances over at Johann who seems relatively content to just--just hold her hand and that’s nice. However, she knows the tells of his expressions, she can read the little lines between his brows that call confusion even when the rest of his face defaults to something rather bored. Meanwhile, Noelle nods, “Course I remember Kravitz he right nearly took my soul straight on over to the astral sea.”

She glances out at the sea as she speaks, for a brief moment there’s an almost far away look in her eyes but it’s soon smothered by something that looks suspiciously like _mischief_. Lucretia raises a brow and Noelle herself just keeps on smiling.

“ _Terrible_ luck, that Kravitz has! Ya woulda thought somebody woulda taught that boy not to fall for card tricks.” Noelle notes with a little rueful wink as she sneaks a glance over at the Raven Queen. Lucretia has to hold back a snort, at the hysterical little giggle bubbling in her chest because Noelle is absolutely fearless in the most _lovely_ way Lucretia’s ever seen.

Once she smothers her laughter, pushes it back down into her chest she smiles. She can’t quite put her Director face on, but she doesn’t really _need_ to. She can smile again, and that’s more freeing than she’d have ever really anticipated. It’s only a few twitches of muscle and really her face almost hurts at this point but she can’t _stop_ it.

It’s such a foreign feeling, she’s just so happy.

“I--Well, I can do something like that, the bodies won’t be the ones you had before they’ll be, ah, and extension of my magic and that’s well, it’s a little different from when you last saw me. I--I got an upgrade, you could say--No, _no_ that’s not it.”

And all at once, the joy in her heart turns to ash in her throat and grave soil under her fingernails as her brain dives straight back into Bastion’s rotten little fingers. Her vision _fuzzes_ , not around the edges like she’s unfocusing but everywhere all at once. Like a flashbang to the cornea, her vision whites but before more than a moment can pass she feels cold cold hands against her face.

Long, thin fingers smoothing over her cheekbones, a soft low voice in her ear, “Come back to me, little light.”

When Lucretia can see again she’s staring straight at Death who croons to her like she’s some sort of injured animal. Lucretia’s breath snakes out of her all at once in a sharp huff, but before she can say a single word the Raven Queen is suddenly _not_ in her face.

Johann is.

The Raven Queen, Death Incarnate and sovereign of the realm they stand within is abruptly shoved to the side. In her place Johann stands, his lips pursed as he looses a high trilling whistle. All at once, Lucretia feels such a soothing flow of energy overtake her body she leans forward, resting her head against Johann’s shoulder.

His hands find her elbows and he pivots her, so his body blocks what must be a very irritated Death goddess from her field of vision. Johann’s voice drifts quietly into her ear, so quietly even this close it’s barely a hairsbreadth above a whisper, “Hey, did skull queen over there make you go all glowy? ‘Cause like, I could _probably_ take her long enough for you and Noelle to get outta here.”

Lucretia wants to laugh again, but she’s still so tired from the sudden burst of--of _something_. Anxiety, adrenaline, newfound godly power or some amalgamation of all three therewithin. Johann’s just as brave as ever, this is the second time he’s stood up to Death unwavering albeit in very different circumstances. He’s brave and beautiful and the entire world deserves to see him in person, not just in the echoes of the voidfish’s power.

No, that’s not right. _Johann_ deserves the world.

“I-I’m alright, Johann. I promise there’s no need to fuss,” Lucretia assures even though she doesn’t quite lift her head yet, “ _She_ didn’t do this to me, she’s been helping me, ah, adjust.”

She always thought ghosts would be cold and incorporeal. Yet, here Johann is very much dead but so warm and alive. She feels him shift, his back straightening and shoulders tensing slightly, “But someone _else_ did?”

Oh, she’s forgotten in her time without him just how clever Johann is.

“It’s a very complicated story, I can tell you both about it later but it’s just, I need time. It’s a _hard_ story to tell, it’s--it’s a sad story.”

She feels a warm hand on her hip and Lucretia tilts her head, ever so slightly so that it’s her ear instead of her forehead that lays pressed against Johann’s shoulder. With the new angle, she can look down at the Halfling the comforting palm is attached to. Noelle looks up at her, eyes full of honey brown concern. That hits something in Lucretia’s heart she hadn’t expected as she realizes this is the first time she’s ever _really_ looked Noelle in the eye. Noelle had made her hugbot body into a home for herself, full of life, love, and wonder but it’s still so very different to put that marvelous soul to a face. She’s beautiful, Lucretia decides, not because of her looks though she thinks Noelle certainly is aesthetically what most would consider _adorable_ , but that she simply exudes an aura that could make a cold, unfeeling robot body into such a beacon of love and hope.

Noelle asks, voice earnest and gentle, “But it has a happy ending, right?”

Lucretia doesn’t _quite_ smile this time, because right now that’s such a _hard_ question. Sometimes she feels fine like one day this will all just be another bad memory like the time she broke her arm as a little girl. Other times it feels like she’s alone on the starblaster, or alone in her office, or alone in her cell and she can’t escape. Feels like there’s a terrified animal trapped beneath her own skin that’s trying to claw it’s way out from the inside--It’s all so overwhelming.

But, that’s why she needs help, that’s why she needs her family--Not just the IPRE, she needs all of it. This won’t be easy, recovery is never smooth or simple. However, in this moment as she draws in the warmth of these two missing puzzle pieces of her heart she feels at ease.

Lucretia feels confident with her reply, “I think it will.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have had SUCH a good time writing this and honestly, during some of the really rough stuff in the main fic the idea of this specific reunion scene is what kept me writing. I hope that for y'all it was worth the anticipation!

**Author's Note:**

> WHAT'S UP Y'ALL, I'VE HAD THIS TWIST PLANNED SINCE ABOUT CHAPTER FOUR OF THE MAIN FIC. I'm really REALLY excited for it and just I love the Raven Queen and her lore is SUPER interesting given she was once a mortal woman who wasn't TECHNICALLY forced into godhood perse but it wasn't exactly a choice she necessarily might have made if she hadn't been forced into a marriage with a death god. It's not one for one Lucretia's situation but I definitely think out of anyone she might understand some of Lucretia's trauma with godhood a little better than others.


End file.
